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Still, it's quiet outside.

It's snowing.

The house is so empty now.

It's so cold.

Most of the leaves are fallen and gone. And the pine needles are barely visible on the trees at the edge of the forest, blanketed in dead weight since at least dawn. The snow started sometime in the night.

Time is up.

Taika sits out on the lawn out front, all the grass dead and buried beneath wet, crushed snow. Her toes are numb. So is everything else.

Hadewych stands tall but hunched in the back of Rikhard's pickup, leaning down and taking the filled bags he hands up to her, shoving them tight against all the rest already loaded up. It's the last load for today, before it gets too cold in the night. Even colder than now. Frightening.

There's no need for either of them to talk for that. Taika? She has nothing better to contribute.

She'll leave in another week. She's told them.

If there were some power within her to simply fade away harmlessly from place and memory, she'd make use of it, but no, she just has… ice powers, and such.

The closest of her abilities is merely to stay quiet and out of the way until she's gone.

She can keep offering that much.

Hadewych squeezes the last bag tighter against the rest with the flat of her boot, and she braces one hand down over the edge of the cargo bed while she hops out back into the snow. Rikhard shuts the tailgate after her. They're loaded up.

Taika stands again, shakes snow off herself, and she climbs into the truck after Hadewych slides in the middle, right next to Rikhard. Taika sits squished in the seat against the window, holding her tails close, but she still doesn't buckle. Doesn't work like that for her.

Key twists into the ignition, engine rumbles, headlights click on down the road, and they're off to the dump.

The roads get paved promptly around here, and there aren't that many to pave, but Rikhard drives slower than Taika wishes anyway.

By the time they get there, it's pitch black out and five minutes before this facility's gate is locked for the night. There's no moon. Just the dull glow of the taillights as Rikhard slides out, jogs around to the back, and tosses every bag as efficiently as he's grown used to in the past months.

Taika barely has time to shiver at the evening air slipping inside as he already slides back in and buckles back up, already time to get back “home."

But at this point, finally, the engine's rumbled warm enough for the heater to come on. Taika breathes easily again as Rikhard cranks it. He next lowers his hand to the gear, ready to go, get back, get some sleep—until another hand clasps over his, holds it still.

Hadewych's. She stares him dead in the eyes. Taika can't see the look on her face, but her voice is at first tiny.

“It's her or me."

Taika stiffens. That easy breath hitches now.

Rikhard stares back at Hadewych blankly. He glances around at Taika. Looks back to Hadewych.

“What?"

“Pick," Hadewych says, volume rising. “Taika or me. This isn't some goddamn joke."

Taika keeps motionless even as Hadewych refuses to look back to her. But even looking back in whatever her eyes show, Rikhard doesn't muster anything. And not even he states the obvious.

He just says, “Haddy, why?"

“There's one rational choice here, Rikhard," Hadewych says. “It doesn't get easier than this. So just choose. Her or me."

Wretched heat rises from Taika's cheeks to her ears, and every breath she takes now prickles her nostrils no matter how slow they come.

She wishes more so now to summon a rift in space to swallow her whole.

It's the longest moment yet from Rikhard. He looks down at the wheel, braces a wrist behind his head, thinks long and quiet.

For this entire longest moment, he says nothing.

Even after the moment's over, he says nothing.

The muscles in Hadewych's fingers tighten, and she jerks her hand off from Rikhard's. She folds her arms and faces straight forward and down, glowering into empty space, lips pursed tight. Her jaw trembles, but the bite on her tongue stays there.

Taika turns toward the window and clenches her eyes shut.

For all she ever wanted to hear from him, too… this was never it.

Instead, Rikhard pulls into reverse, gets the truck turned around, into drive, and it's a dark ride back.

Still no one talks the whole way.

Country forest roads give way again to a familiar driveway, and Rikhard soon pulls into park beside the little car usually there. He cuts the engine, clicks his door open, slides himself out, and Hadewych bustles out past him without waiting, storming toward the glow of the porch light, fogged breath rolling behind her. She slams the door behind her when she disappears inside.

Rikhard just stands there in the snow watching her, hand still on the door, breathing slow in the night air.

Taika watches him.

Quietly even from her mind to his, she says, “You really blew it, Rikhard."

Rikhard's expression still doesn't change. His cheeks are dull in the cold, but he only sinks his head over his arm, hiding his face from the flakes still falling.

“Yeah…."

For the few thoughts lately that Taika crosses amongst Rikhard's, she always darts herself in and out too quickly to hear what he's really thinking. She doesn't dare read his mind. But one more thought opens in hers:

“Tell me why."

Though that one doesn't make it across the distance.

She doesn't send it.

Rikhard just stands there, bulky arm hiding his skin, hair scuffed under his sleeve, and Taika doesn't want to hear a thing going on inside him.

She's not going to be the one to remind him to please get the door for her again, and she's not going to scoot over out his side.

She can wait.

Here's a more familiar scene: Taika, alone in all her glory, but right now sitting on the floor against the bed in Hadewych's old room. The lamp's still on, and the ceiling is too bright for how long she stares up at it.

It's about bedtime, but she's just not ready for that struggle just now.

She doesn't have anything left to think hard about anymore. Her thoughts are a blank canvas, only slightly marred.

Just the vague feeling of her resolve, gone.

Shouldn't it have at least taken actual words to make her crumble, too?

It's less familiar lately when there comes a knock from the door. And just after, Rikhard's voice.

“Can I come in?"

Taika frowns. She lowers her gaze and closes her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. She gathers some facade of a smile.

“You may."

The door creaks open slow and steady, and there's Rikhard poking his head in from the other side, still only peeking before he enters. He closes the door behind himself quietly, and he steps closer to Taika uneasily, fighting a grin out of himself.

Without saying anything more before him, Taika shuffles some inches to the side. In a quicker, awkward motion, Rikhard clears his throat and settles himself on the floor beside her.

But not too close.

Taika waits for him. Rikhard stares at the floor, propping one knee up and laying one flat—and eventually, voice remaining quiet, he finds the words.

“I didn't ever want to trap you here with me," he says.

Taika just watches him. Her lips tighten.

“I still don't want you to leave… but I'm not gonna be the guy who keeps you from what you really want to do," Rikhard says, nodding slowly to his own cadence. “You gotta do what you want. For real. And… no matter where you go, I don't want you to feel like you can't ever come back to visit, or… something like that."

He breathes in deep, tilts his gaze, and hesitates a moment—then sets a hand over Taika's paw, clutches it tight. He breathes out again. Looks her in the eye.

“You deserve to be happy. And I know you haven't been, not around me. Not for a long time."

Taika's brow furrows even against her own restraint, but she looks away before he can see.

“I don't want you to feel like you have to stay, or like you're unwelcome here," Rikhard says. “I really hope you live the life you're after out there. I want you to be happy."

Taika clenches her eyes shut. Her thoughts are getting ahead of themselves.

She says, “I just—"

She sends it freely, but still she cuts the thought off in the middle. She can't finish that one.

She's warming all too easily under his touch.

She looks back at him again.

“You need to go tell Hadewych how much she means to you right now, Rikhard. It matters. And it won't change the relationship between us."

Rikhard keeps his hand tight over her paw, grinning. He says, “I think she needs a break from me tonight anyway. I'll sleep on the couch."

“You're taking her for granted again," Taika says.

Just his eyes change expression as Rikhard hangs his head, sighing.

“I guess that's how I've been taking both of you."

He musters the grin fuller.

“I got selfish. Trying to keep you both all for myself."

His hand drifts away from Taika, and he pushes himself to his feet, grunting. Taika watches the conscious effort as he straightens himself, that second longer before he remembers to pull his shoulders back.

Rikhard sighs again. “Really don't think Haddy wants to talk tonight, though. She's… not feeling it. My fault, obviously."

Walking back to the door, he only cracks it open as he turns once more. All with that grin, he opens his mouth—and pauses.

He shuts up. His gaze falls as he says instead, “G'night."

He steps back out, creaks the door shut again.

Taika sits alone again, and the lamp seems to glare more now than before in all the newly empty space.

All of a sudden it's too bright for this late.

Taika sighs, too, but she doesn't get up yet even to turn it off. She just mutters back only to her own quiet brain, “Goodnight, Rikhard."

And that just makes her feel silly.

Dawn lazes back up over the treetops now, shiny and frozen, but the driveway's been shoveled early enough that the sun has no blinding reflection here. It stopped snowing last night.

Taika and Rikhard both wait in the truck for Hadewych, still inside. The engine's still warming up, but the heater is on, and this old vinyl Taika clenches her toes over is just above freezing by now. She can bear it.

All morning, no one's said a word. Everyone was silent at breakfast. Rikhard helped cook it, but not even Hadewych's mother asked what happened.

Mother's intuition? Maybe some mothers really do have that.

Taika hears the front door slam, and she shakes loose from other thoughts. There's Hadewych on the porch, stuffing her ungloved hands in the pockets of her jacket as her first breath outside fogs instantly, and she buries her jaw deeper in her scarf. She watches the ground for stray patches of ice as she crunches over to the truck.

Rikhard gets out and holds the door open on his side for, but she barely lifts her face as she stops before him rather than climbing inside. Taika can see, too, that the look on Hadewych's face is the same as earlier this morning: gone.

Without really looking at either of them, Hadewych says, “I'm gonna take a break today. Just not feeling up to it."

Before Rikhard can say something, Hadewych then does look closer. First a glance to Taika, and then eye to eye with Rikhard, she says just as empty, “We're over. Forever."

Rikhard blinks. Still he doesn't say anything. Certainly, Taika doesn't.

Hadewych watches him a second more, gives him the chance, and when the moment is gone, she looks away again and mutters, “This sucks."

She crunches back to the house. Without looking back, she opens the door, enters—wipes her sleeve quickly over her eyes—and shuts it.

Neither Rikhard nor Taika really react. Stunned, if nothing more. Or numbed already.

Rikhard looks back to Taika, and both of them know only that neither of them know what to think immediately.

So he climbs back in by himself, and his hand hesitates over the gear, but they get going.

It doesn't seem that time's passed before they're parking back at their old house, chained tires crunching the snow there flatter. And Rikhard doesn't really linger. He scoots out, gets the other door for Taika, and it's without stopping to think that they both tromp on over to the house.

But there at the threshold, looking on, Rikhard pauses.

Breath catching in the open, looking up, he just stops.

Utter exhaustion on his face, in his shoulders. He's drained. And there's hardly a greater energy in Taika.

She doesn't really know what she's doing this for anymore, either.

Without any sure step, Rikhard trudges close to the porch and turns around, collapsing onto half-swept concrete, arms falling over his knees in a weak sit.

Taika sits gentler next to him, getting out of the snow. Her jaw hangs open that same inch as his, tired, breath rolling out into the open air, too cold to think deeper.

Except that there really used to be a time she didn't do drama.

Really not as introspective as she thinks, sometimes.

“I'm the one who messed up after all," she says.

Rikhard glances slowly at her. She really did cross that thought over, apparently.

“I thought if I left, neither of us would have to envy the other anymore," she says.

The cold keeps him silent a moment longer than necessary, but Rikhard says, “For what?"

Taika says, “You."

Rikhard faces forward again, squinted eyes glazing over past the truck. He says, “Oh."

He leans farther forward over his knees, pulling his hand back up over his hair, scratching, smoothing it—something.

“I thought I was doing everything right," he says. “Not doing everything perfect, but… thought I was doing everything I was supposed to."

Taika says, “No one can do that forever."

Rikhard looks back at her, and maybe it's the temperature, but the look in his eyes has softened.

“I never really did that for you, huh?" he says. “Like—just saying something's… not okay, and that's okay. Just being a shoulder when you need one."

His gaze falls wherever else, and he mutters, “Starting to feel like you two put up with a lot more than I meant to put down."

Taika watches his gaze wherever it goes, and then she hums.

“It might not be kind to mention," she says, “but good looks do go some way to making that easier."

Again Rikhard looks to her, and without even thinking about it, Taika grins. Rikhard does, too.

Though Taika's fades as soon as she feels the blush replacing it.

“Thirteen, fourteen years ago… did we ever get over that old middle school crush on each other?" Rikhard says.

His grin falters, but he keeps his eyes on her.

Taika stares back at him.

“Did we both… have that?"

Taika breaks their gaze first.

“We both had that."

“Did we get over it?"

Even Taika's breath catches in the air as she breathes in, breathes out.

“I didn't."

Without waiting for his response, she hangs her head and smirks. She says, “It's not very impressive to hang on to feelings like that for so long, is it?"

It's far too cold to think deeply about what she's saying.

“Less impressive to let other people tell you how you're allowed to feel for your best friend just because she's a pokemon," Rikhard mutters.

He slides his hand down to the back of his neck, fingers clenching.

“I don't think we were ever in love," he says. “Haddy and me."

Taika says, “You said you were."

Rikhard says, “I think I'm a liar."

Taika looks back to him, and he pulls his hand back around to under his chin, slumping his head in his palm.

“I used her," he says. “I just wanted to be with somebody. To feel like what I was supposed to feel like. I'm a dick."

Not even any of Taika's pithy thoughts occur to that.

“Is it good or bad that right after she dumped me, I'm already hoping she finds somebody better?"

“I don't think it's fair for me to answer that."

“I guess it's not," Rikhard says.

He shifts his knees and turns his gaze once more, looks her in the eye. Neither of them look away.

Just like this, Taika says, “Should we get back to cleaning?"

Just as plainly, with his cheek squished against the palm he's rested it against, Rikhard says, “Nah."

He says, “I fuckin' hate this place."

Without any grin suitable for it, Taika says, “What else are we going to do with ourselves?"

Too cold, but she still probably shouldn't have phrased it like that.

Rikhard smiles bigger back at her, but there's a different look with it. He gives her a look.

She's not sure what the look means.

Again, Taika hops down from her side of the truck, and Rikhard slams the door shut after her. They're back in snow, only slim lanes in the road plowed this high up—but the view from up here is beautiful.

The whole town sprawls out beneath them down the forest, perfectly on display for them from the dedicated viewing area at the top of the mountain. There are no other cars, no other people up here with them this time of year. It's all theirs.

Rikhard cradles a coffee for himself in one hand and one for Taika in the other, hers unlidded. He sits himself up on the hood of his truck while Taika walks closer to the guard rail, soaking in a greater look over the rolling hills of pines and long, low clouds. Her skin prickles under her fur, but it doesn't feel as much colder as it should at this elevation.

There's a new hair clip tucked over her wisps now, bundling stray hairs from slipping over her face. No bejeweled bits hiding behind her ear this time, just a simple sky blue, not too small for her anymore.

“You remember Simo, back in the day?" Rikhard says, sipping loud from behind.

Without looking back just yet, Taika says, “Vaguely. You played with him at school forever ago, you told me."

With just a sigh, she says, “He gave you your first black eye."

“That kid, yeah," Rikhard says. “What an ass. Now that guy was a dick."

“What do you think he's gotten up to since?" Taika says.

Another sip, and Rikhard says, “I wanna say he got to selling used cars down at Laukkanen's or something, but I heard he moved. Never seen him since junior year. Made my life easier."

“I used to think your motivation for exercising so much was to fight back against all those boys, actually," Taika says. “But then you never did."

“Yeah," Rikhard says. “At first I just wanted people to look at me and think, 'Oh, look at that, he's not such a weird little guy.' Especially after Haddy… y'know, she was the only person willing to talk to me at school. And I really needed more friends."

Taika frowns. Much as she might dislike admitting it, even she needed those. For as long as such lasted.

Rikhard's coat shifts audibly taut over his arm as he lifts his cup again, sipping longer.

“Yeah," he says, “fucked that up pretty bad."

Taika peers longer across town, gaze drifting over the long, low bricks of Rikhard's old school, the western half shrouded in shorter pines than the rest. Then she turns back to the truck, saunters over, hops her front legs up, and jumps gracefully onto the hood before settling down beside Rikhard.

The heat of the engine hasn't permeated the hood at all. She snuggles one leg only close enough against Rikhard's arm for warmth, not that his coat allows her much.

“How well do you remember our first Tourneig pel Mar?" she says. “Or however they pronounce it. They have such a long name for the whole thing."

“I remember we got booked in that little red motel the first time," Rikhard says, holding Taika's coffee out for her. “Then turquoise the next. Every apartment down every street, a different color. What a joint."

Even in the middle of two careful laps into the cup, Taika says, “Not the cliffs, or the palms, or that beach?"

Rikhard sips again, too, before answering.

“I liked it inside better. I kinda like it colder than they had it down there," he says. “Sweating at the gym's a whole lot different from sweating from the heat."

Taika smirks.

Related: the single bed in their room is the high point she remembers.

She pushes closer against his natural heat anyway and says, “You're absurd."

Rikhard sets his coffee down on the other side of the hood, then sets one warmed hand over Taika's shoulder. His voice goes to just a wispy low as he says, “I remember how stupid hard you fought. Our first big tourney, and how mean you got for it out on the field."

He purses his lips a moment, then whispers, “How stupid fuckin' proud I was to be the other half of your team."

“The adrenaline really does wonders in the middle of it all," Taika says. “Especially for when that Garchomp sunk into my leg."

Rikhard recoils in grand, grinning fashion, leaning way back over the hood before coming back, groaning, “Jeez… I felt so bad after, but like—I felt bad, but seeing you do that little limp you did was just… you just made it so dainty, it was so cute. And then I felt like shit thinking that about a real injury."

“Rude!" Taika scoffs, bumping a tail softly against his coat. “Make it up to me now. I'm freezing."

Hesitation. Fingers tense a moment over her fur. But then Rikhard's hand drifts farther around Taika, reaching around and pulling her cheek closer over his own shoulder.

He's still not that warm, but she feels his skin brushed under all the wisps atop her brow, and she doesn't complain anymore.

“I truly do want to see more of the world, outside of the tournaments," she says, “but I never wanted to do it alone."

It's difficult to lower her own voice so much within her head, from hers to his, but her next thought, Taika truly whispers.

“Did you ever get over it?"

Rikhard's hand tenses again over her fur, then loosens consciously. He sighs inward, but his gaze lingers over their town.

He says, “I told myself I did."

Taika looks away from him, and he clears his throat, stifling something else. But he says, “I'm not ashamed anymore. Never should have been ashamed in the first place, but… I'm not anymore. Momma never really knew best for me, anyway, even if she tried. Even if she didn't."

Rikhard sighs.

“It's Haddy who helped me work through that shit, too, even if she didn't mean to."

Even while Taika's upper face burns the hottest of her body, she sighs louder, “I suppose today is a poor time for us to finally be bringing all this to light."

“Yeah, with Haddy… I led her on, I guess," Rikhard says. “I don't know if I can make that up to her. Years spent on me, just… wasted."

Just as idly as she's managed all thus far, Taika says, “It wouldn't be right to take this any further right now, then."

And just warm enough now to regret that, quickly enough that she hasn't yet thought it through first, she says, “Not that, um… that was meant to mean anything in particular."

But Rikhard doesn't offer much of a response to that. He sits and thinks a moment longer, then rustles a hand into his pocket and tugs his phone out instead. He mumbles, “Better do the first apology now, see if there's still any space there for us to sleep tonight."

He taps out a message, and it's barely a minute before his phone buzzes with another. Taika thinks to glance down at the screen after Rikhard, but as he reads it he bellows a single shocked laugh, and he hides the screen all too fast against his leg.

Though she cocks her brow, Taika says only, “Not so easily forgiven, surely."

Shaking his head with eyes still wide, Rikhard says, “Not that. She's just feeling really blunt about it right now."

“Well, let me read it."

“Oh, no way. I'm embarrassed enough for two."

Lifting his phone again, but angling the screen away from Taika, Rikhard mumbles as he taps out his next message, “All… we're… doing… is talking."

On instinct, at least, Taika rolls her eyes. Now, still, her blush hasn't had a chance to fade.

Rikhard's phone buzzes again in barely a second more, and as he skims the new message, he looks back up to Taika and says, “Looks like her place is just a maybe. Probably shouldn't head back too early, though, give her some time away from me. Away from us, I guess."

Taika nods. Then, despite how early it still is, unbidden, she yawns.

And seeing that, as if in solidarity, Rikhard stretches his back wide and full with a close groan.

“May not be back on the road again yet, but… you feel like a nap?" he says. “Short one. We can keep the heater on."

Well… they do have an unfortunate length of time left to kill.

Taika smiles.

“We're taking it easy today, after all," she says.

They both slide or hop off the hood, and Taika climbs back inside ahead of Rikhard after he gets the door.

When Rikhard stretches out like usual, slouched against the corner between his door and backrest and legs kicked one over the other off the bench, when he shuts his eyes with a deep sigh—it takes Taika a moment not to simply curl up and lay her head back over his lap, like in golden days past.

Time and place. Not now.

She curls up, but dips her cheek the other way, over the other seat. Her ears tip low, and she closes her eyes too. She's already gotten tired for not having started work cleaning today, her body unused to the lack of activity, but all of a sudden, heavy eyelids don't make it any easier to get to sleep.

And despite the better help of the clip newly nestled over her tufts, still, some lone white wisp falls gently again over her face—before the heater's flow vibrates it just barely away.

She can rest her eyes a while, at least.

Even now, or later, whichever it is—even after time to herself, across the table, Taika notices how Hadewych's expression remains mostly the same as this morning. Not fierce. Not broken. Not even tired, but… closing in on such, except for how sharp she keeps her gaze. Her arms are folded. Her boots and jacket are long since off, but socks and sweater still on.

Her eyes are still a little puffy.

They're all three at the dining table, but there's no meal laid out. There's no one else here, Hadewych's mother off on errands remembered suddenly.

“Thought I'd get to blow up on you when it finally happened, at least," Hadewych says. “Not like I wanted it to happen, but at least I'd get to scream and cry and I'd get a villain out of it or something…."

This time Rikhard is beside Taika, both on the other side of the table. He says, “I fucked up."

“Yeah, well, we can still agree on that," Hadewych mutters.

“It's okay if you still wanna scream at me," Rikhard says.

“Fuckin'—it's the wrong mood now, I can't just—no, I don't want to scream anymore. I just—"

Hadewych purses her lips tight, looks away. Shakes her head.

“You just… you weren't doing anything while I wasn't there, before this, were you?"

“We didn't, and he wouldn't," Taika says.

It takes a second for Hadewych to glare back at her, not so automatically. Taika looks away with something of a blush, partially guilty.

“Would it, uh… I still want to be friends, if we can be, but I know I don't really get to decide that," Rikhard says. “Maybe it's the wrong time to say it."

No immediate answer, but Hadewych lifts one hand to her hair, toying with her ponytail. She breathes in deep from her chest, but sighs back out quietly. She doesn't look back at Rikhard or Taika.

She has no answer at all.

So Rikhard says quieter, “You're better than I deserved, Haddy."

“Oh, my fucking god," Hadewych says faster, dropping her ponytail. “Rule number one is you don't say that shit right after a breakup, either. 'Sorry I didn't really love you, I'm underqualified.' What the fuck."

With an anxious smile, Rikhard says, “I can keep saying dumb shit until you're back in the mood to scream at me."

Hadewych pulls one foot up on the chair with her, knee in front of her chin, and pushes deeper into the seat, gaze falling below her lap this time. She slumps.

“Fuck…."

Without lifting herself, she glances back up toward Taika.

“You say something," Hadewych says. “Say something so I can at least hate you more or feel like shit for treating you like I did the whole time, or fucking something."

And without defaulting to some polite, sorry little smile, Taika just shrugs.

“We all deserve to be happy. None of us more than any other. I'm not going to antagonize or console you for that."

Hadewych scoffs. She glances between Taika and Rikhard both.

did he hear that?

“No."

still fucking hate you

Taika smirks, and Hadewych scowls. Rikhard just looks between them cockeyed.

“How often have you two been leaving me out like that?" he says.

“Hell, once was often enough," Hadewych says.

Her scowl loosens its grip, but as she glances back at Taika, not entirely. She says, “Don't take this the wrong way, but it's just, like… losing your man to a pokemon—it really sucks."

To that, even Taika crosses her brow.

“I don't think there's a right way to take that, actually."

Hadewych rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah…."

The only defense of anyone's honor Rikhard attempts this time is through clearing his throat, rather than jumping in. Rather, he says to Hadewych, “What are we going to do with the house? You have just as much of a right to it as either of us. We've all put the work in."

Hadewych cocks her brow right back at him and her lips hang open an inch, the picture of ridiculous right before her. “Well, I don't fucking want it now. Burn it for real for all I care."

Another silence. No retorts.

Rikhard says, “You sure you don't want to yell at me…?"

Taika doesn't butt in, but it really is a dense man she fell in love with, too.

Though she wonders if a little yelling wouldn't help.

Hadewych tilts her face further away from them both, gaze dimming. She says lower, “Could you two just… could you get, like, a motel or something after all? Just… I need space after all."

Rikhard glances back at Taika, and she at him. Some small look shared between them, and Rikhard's the first to rise from his seat as Taika joins him.

“Would it help if we brought back some beer later?" he says, pushing his chair back against the table.

“You hate beer," Hadewych mutters.

“You don't," Rikhard says.

Setting her paws back on solid ground, toes flexing in silent welcome of it, Taika says, “I'd be willing to give some a try with you."

“Could you just not? Not now? Just… seriously. You're exhausting."

Hadewych keeps her gaze ducked away, and… Taika offers back a little smile after all, at least. Rikhard leads their way out.

It's getting dark out by the time Rikhard and Taika are out on the road once more, but there's still some light left in the sky over the trees blurring by above them on either side of the road.

Rikhard's hands are set on ten and two over the wheel, eyes set just past his headlights. Easier than his words came earlier, he says now, “Kind of like we're traveling again, just the two of us. Or… you know what I mean."

“I know what you mean," Taika says. “It is starting to feel like that already."

Rikhard's lips keep to a smile even as there's nothing else he comes up with to say. Taika peeks over at him from the other side of the bench, just as satisfied without speaking—

There's his shoulders pressed back against his seat, sitting up straight. Relaxed. No conscious effort in holding himself tall and content.

She missed that look.

But she catches his eye, too, and he glances back over for the second he can take his eyes off the road—and for how warm his smile is, it fades a moment.

He looks back ahead and says clearly and suddenly, “I don't remember where any motels are in town."

Gently, he twists the steering wheel to the right and pulls to a stop just off the road, mumbling, “Wasn't there one near that superstore that closed down…?"

Tugging his phone out from his coat, he taps it on and over to a map. He squints a moment, then says clearer again, “Right. Yeah. There's one."

And he shoves his phone back, and lifts his hands back over the wheel, sighing loud and quick as if the latest silence has gotten uncomfortable again.

As for Taika—that was a lie earlier. It wasn't a peek.

She hasn't really stopped staring at him.

And without pulling the gear back into drive, without going anywhere—he looks back at her.

Their whole lives, somehow, she's never really gotten such a deep look into his eyes.

She doesn't quite feel it happen. She hasn't told herself to. But her body just… moves.

Lips open. Eyes close. Taika kisses him.

And she tastes his lips open to hers.

His hands over her cheeks, his thumbs grazing beneath her ears—and she tastes him kissing her back. Tastes the breath gasped off his tongue, caught within hers, and it takes no conscious thought for her to take more of these.

Her paw slides closer over the vinyl, and Taika breaks the gap between them.

All of a sudden—it doesn't feel sudden.

Her tongue plies deeper, tangled within teeth and cheek, wetting more of herself the farther she goes, and there's no doubt she can foster that tells her this is wrong.

This is hers.

Rikhard's tongue laps below hers, and there's merely a moment either of them break away, gasping together. He looks her in the eye, and it's in wonder. Wide open and in wonder of her.

Taika presses back. No more kisses—just the one, still going, obnoxiously wet. She will take more of it.

Breaths fall hotter the longer each second gets, gasped nasally, desperate—and between every greater breath they steal off each the other's cheek, Rikhard whispers, “Taika…."

His hands are gentle, but Taika burns beneath them so quickly. Thumbs stroke her like a lover Rikhard doesn't wish to let go of anymore, and Taika lifts a paw to his chest, toes not cautious anymore in wanting to touch him.

Mutual spit drools down Taika's chin, sliding dark through the fibers, and when lips draw away just one more moment, Rikhard whispers, “Taika…."

A high-pitched whine, purely animal, escapes her throat without her notice. But Taika's claws press firmer. Her eyes open dim, sharp, and she sees all again within the dark. She gazes back into Rikhard's eyes.

And she does not whisper.

“I'm already naked," she says. “Why aren't you?"

Rikhard looks at her with eyes soaking in every detail, but it takes him a second for more.

“You sure you wanna… you really want this?" he says. “We don't need to go fast if you don't want to. I don't want you to feel like this is fake."

Taika squirms farther toward him, toes squeaking hard over the bench as they shift direction.

“I haven't been thinking about this for only a few minutes," she says face to face. “I want this, Rikhard… but if you don't, then we'll stop."

Rikhard smiles.

“I want a lot with you."

He strokes her cheek.

“I definitely think this is part of it."

Taika grins. The paw on his chest stays there. And she enunciates.

“Then take your clothes off, Rikhard."

Another moment of gazing between them… and Rikhard snaps to. His hands pull away from her face and he grabs at his coat, yanking the sleeves down his arms, off his wrists, away. He throws it toward the dashboard, but it slides sleeves-first down into the footwell anyway.

Taika growls low and needy. Her claws extend and squeeze audibly tight over the edge of the vinyl just by Rikhard's leg, and a thought crystallizes perfectly clear from her to him.

“Shirt now," she says. “If I have to help get it off, it won't ever come back on."

Rikhard watches that expression, and a grin bubbles up within his as he whispers, “I've got spares."

Taika lifts her chin, and her fangs gleam in fading light.

“Take your shirt off, Rikhard."

Rikhard grabs at his hem, stretching it up and off himself.

Now they're getting somewhere.

Taika edges closer still, and her all tails storm loose behind her, finally demanding their share of the cab. She lifts a paw to Rikhard's bare chest, bare skin, and finds her gaze fully distracted with the display his pectorals have put on just by being there.

But his fingers find the fuzzy crook of her chin, and his eyes bring hers back. She finds his lips once more and she falls back into them, gladly getting used to this.

“I don't get to—see you this aggressive very often…" Rikhard mutters wet through the cracks. “Not out of training…."

Both paws lift up toward his chest, tucking her whole body against his, and Taika tilts her face for lapping him up deeper still.

But a kiss is no final goal.

One paw dips so soon to his sweatpants, claws catching gingerly over the waistband, and she truly paws at him.

As commanding as she means to say it, the sopping, smacking noises between their tongues only reduce the tone of voice in her head as Taika says, “Lay down and help me—get these off, Rikhard."

She hasn't seen this youthful kind of eagerness in him for a long time as Rikhard shimmies lower down the bench, and she pads back, spreads all her legs for him to sprawl underneath her. Neither of them break their kiss as Taika bends down with him, and Rikhard finagles both hands around his drawstring, tugging it loose and stretching his pants down over his erection.

And not just his cock—his erection, yes, fully erect. Taika feels that molten lust slap free and damp between her thighs, and her smile turns sickly slick around the drool spilling from her, too.

“There we go…."

Taika lifts from his mouth with a dainty pop of spit, and rather than another downward adjustment, she turns around, each step careful over him, tails bunching all around them again on her hind end's path to hovering over Rikhard's face.

She looks back, and a fire's in her eyes. She pushes her mound closer to his face and her lungs grow heavy. “You already know how to do this?"

Hands clench around her rump—but Rikhard doesn't dive in. One hot breath over Taika's barest skin and her knees tense, and Rikhard lifts his face to her mound slowly, grazes lips tender upon her. Then it's her clitoris he first suckles over his tongue.

Taika shudders.

She bites her own lip for those growls turned blissful threatening to escape her throat already.

Rather than the desperation of a man figuring out how to make her squirt, it's the experience of one figuring out just how she'll best enjoy it.

Taika wriggles further back upon him, all her toes suddenly weak, and willingly, Rikhard lays flat underneath her. Taika's hind paws spread carefully, gingerly beside his shoulders, fighting against the urge in her legs to collapse, until she's sitting down properly. On him. Neck hunched slightly, but sitting on him, and he's switched to licking her—she blushes madly, and it's all she can still feel of her face.

This pounding in her chest never occurred within her fantasies. She's cramped, and the heater's blowing right against her face from here. There's nowhere for her tails to go but for bunching up against the window and the corners of the cab, and her leftward paws both struggle again to stay perched on the bench without slipping off.

But she's sitting on him, and this is the warmth she's been always after.

And no struggle stops her from next drawing herself to focus on the erection still below her. Rock hard. She doesn't have to care anymore about how hot her face burns. As she leans down, her cheeks twitch in minor little yips as Rikhard explores inside her. And it's not a thought that crosses from her mind to his, but rather a more wordless idea that occurs to her as she lowers her face to his cock:

Is he big? Is this big?

Two twitches of her button nose as she sniffs, more little drips edging down the shaft from over the slit on his tip, and Taika licks. Then flinches, nearly yelps—Rikhard huffs within her walls, fingers curling over the great fluff of her rump.

Two inches from his several more, Taika smirks despite herself.

It doesn't matter. He looks like just her size.

There's no rhythm she's familiar with at this, so she just licks at first. Once more, then twice. He throbs against her tongue—Taika recoils another inch, staring a moment as he twitches again, all on his own.

It can just… move by itself like that?

Excellent.

Her own exploratory licks grow more daring. Her long tongue laps completely around his tip, and she braces lips against it. A kiss, soft and fuzzy for the hair that grows fine around her muzzle. Fangs brush against his skin in this damp nuzzling, but even Taika thinks not to bring them too close.

But daring—should she truly dare? Pucker lips over teeth, suck him all down, take all the practice she could use right now? Figure out exactly how he'll explode in her mouth?

No.

Despite the heat burning all over her face, she grins. She pulls away. And she pries herself up from Rikhard's mouth, leaving him panting, both of them on edge.

But she won't keep either of them waiting long.

Just looking back to him, and her eyes shine through the glare—she can feel it.

“You're going inside of me," she says, panting. “Now."

There's not so much care this time as she turns back around, tails brushing all over the cab again, and her knees crouch on either side of his hips, and the next throb she feels from him is directly against where she needs it.

“Easy," Rikhard warns, breath returning fast. “Careful, don't go fast…."

Taika huffs regardless. Rather than going easy, now the difficulty she faces is lining him up in the growing dark without any fingers.

So his come to grip instead. He holds his cock steady, and now Taika's breath comes to hitch. She perches perfectly atop him, and all her toes flex tight at their wettest contact so far—and there comes the white of his skin where she braces herself over his ribs, claws nearly prodding through skin.

Taika presses him inside.

She gasps a long, high whine out her lips. The bench squeaks beneath her motion.

Thicker inside her.

Here's the warmth she never knew she was after.

Rikhard gasps quieter, his breath turned quickly to a grunt. His hands slide over her paws now, clenching tight around them, holding her. He throbs, and Taika wants more of that—it takes all the rest of her focus just to slide down over the last inch, bottoming out around him.

Throbbing, connected. The air's gotten thick with the smell of them both. Musky.

Taika gazes down at Rikhard with eyes softened, and in the mess of her own head, her voice has lost that forceful edge for a moment.

“I didn't… want you to be unhappy, either," she says. “But this is part of what I wanted, too…."

One hand returns to her face in a gentle stroke. Rikhard's cheeks burn the same, but he's smiling even warmer.

There's surely some better words either of them could whisper now, or still, something truly romantic, greater than their lust…

But they'll have more chances to figure those out.

Taika leans back down for a kiss, simpler this time. She rises, and lowers, and the bench squeaks sharper now—and she rides him.

Within that kiss, Taika whispers harder again, “Make me cum, Rikhard."

Rikhard's throat tightens, and on instinct, he swallows hard. And there goes each their spit with him.

Taika lifts to his tip, smacks down to his base. Tries it faster. Takes him harder. The rhythm grows natural, and Taika's ear twitches furiously at the obscene noises of her own doing, panting, squelching, creaking. It's not—it's not romantic anymore, the sounds, never as messy as she fantasized—but they're wonderful, and she can't stop making them, and Rikhard is big, he's all hers.

Taika bounces over him, and it's not even on purpose how constantly she tightens around him now. Rikhard pulls both his hands back around her, hugging her closer, holding just as tight. She mewls into his locked lips, and there's no chance left that she can stop from reaching her climax slid balls deep around him.

Foul, filthy, better than satisfied—

Her eyes shoot open fully. She gasps. Her throat catches tight.

She can't quite breathe anymore, nerves lighting on fire up her spine, not just cumming—squeezing, cumming on Rikhard, drenching him in her own squirted juices.

She buries her face in the crook over Rikhard's shoulder, hiding herself a moment, whining through every shrill, quiet breath as she comes down.

She feels a hand come warm back over her nape, and Rikhard pets her. Pets, but… before, never even this much. He helps bring her back. Tilts closer over her, kisses her on the bare fuzz just below her ear.

The perfect temperature. It really does help.

Thoughts come back into reasonable pieces, and with them, one settles before all the rest. Taika frowns. She pushes slowly back up over Rikhard, momentarily indenting her little pawprints over his ribs. She raises her chin looking back down to him.

“You still haven't spilled," she says. “Have you been holding back, or… did I do something wrong?"

Breathing barely easier than she, Rikhard chuckles, “I've got practice. I shouldn't cum first."

Taika's gaze narrows. She comes back to a grin after all.

“I see."

No sense stopping now.

She straightens her shoulders, takes one deep breath, and now she's obviously recollected. Prim. Then turns back around one more time, stepping mindfully for her footing. Nine white tails bush up consciously over her hind. She dips her face between her paws over the bench, presses her scalp and its long tufts against the door, and leaves ample room behind herself for tight-quartered company.

Face down, ass up. Presented.

She looks back at Rikhard without any twinkle in her eye. Just looking at what to have.

“That load belongs to me, Rikhard," Taika says. “Offer it."

Rikhard barely needs to be told. He pushes himself back up behind her, over her, hands reaching through her storm to take hold of the anchor of her flank, soft flesh and cool blood.

He lines up in a second. Taika grits her muzzle and braces her forehead against the old metal of the door, keeping exactly what face she'll make all for herself. Her mound quivers against his tip, still sensitive, but she's ready for more.

Ready for actual rutting.

Without warning, Rikhard hammers inside.

In the same instant the first moan squeals out her lips, Taika is thrust even farther forward until her cheek is slammed and squished against the door instead, as she's plowed into it. Relentless. Her spine rocks through every thrust and her tongue spills loose and she can't even attempt finagling a paw over her mouth to stop the girlish vulpine silly squeaks and shrill cries completely unladylike fucked out from her.

She is still sensitive, but not nearly enough to stop him—she's still so close.

Fucked against the door like her man will die if he doesn't cum right now, panting, groaning, and she's the only one capable of providing him the tight perfect hole for release. Like it's by her command alone she's released the animal inside him.

She wants to be sore the next morning. She wants his cock rubbed raw inside her tonight.

“More—gently! More, but—gentler," she squeaks, even telepathically.

Mostly sore and raw.

Rikhard slows down, but pauses only on the outward stroke, leaving barely half his cock plugged wet before a respite. Taika readies to bark not so gentle, but without instruction Rikhard holds firm and tugs her whole body slowly backward, giving breathing room back to her.

Like this, he parts a gap in her storm of tails and leans all the way down over her, resting his weight carefully over hers. He braces one arm beside her, and it nearly embarrasses Taika after all this, but Rikhard's hot breath falls over her cheek in a tone she's never heard from him before.

“You're so beautiful," he mutters. “Taika, you're so hot inside…."

Without permission, he goes at it again. Without asking, he goes slow and steady. Every thrust is deliberate, timed. He works his hips and pumps her at new angles, prods bundles of nerves brand new to every coming moment, explores her.

He gasps again, twitching inside her, leaving Taika to wish for a pillow to bite down on, something, anything, to keep hidden this one long moan she can't stop from mewling anymore.

Rikhard's chest beats above her spine, and he grunts, “Can I cum inside…?"

Not thinking any words through before they cross, Taika gasps, “I'll never forgive you if you don't."

Rikhard's arm tightens beside her, and now he's the one bracing himself.

Faster for a moment, every thrust deliberately harder, he slams home. Ragged gasps echo straight into her ear, and in his groan deep and long, Taika experiences with full clarity the feeling of being held tight and filled to the brim.

His semen boils. He throbs the thickest yet. She can feel every spurt entering her, spilling directly into her belly.

And in the seconds past this, breathing heavy, without even being told, Rikhard's hand wraps around down Taika's hip and his fingers squeeze gently around her clitoris.

Taika's mewl boils just the same into a yip, and he rubs her warmer again, sweaty, teasing her to her next finish—

Squirt spills just as easy out around him, and through one last squeak cut off halfway in her throat, Taika cums the filthiest she's ever felt. Her toes all flex rigid over the bench and this time her claws pierce right through the vinyl, not a thought in her head able to stop herself from leaving a permanent mark in the truck.

Fully embraced, hugged by and still wrapped tight around Rikhard, twitching and pulsing….

This is her favorite now.

And in a minute more, yes, hold on, wait—here's the rest of the world again.

Oh. What a mess.

It's strangely fast she comes back to her senses, as far as she would have guessed, but… even stranger how she still feels so pleasant afterward.

It's fully dark out now. The windows—she can just barely tell they really are all fogged up now, just like on television.

This is okay.

Rikhard keeps gasping small above her, hand removed from her clit and pulled back up to her shoulder, now rubbing it idly instead. His sweat runs freely down Taika's fur. They're both back in their right minds, and even still, he pushes closer for a kiss on her cheek.

He whispers, “It gets even better in a real bed."

Too tired for a giggle, but Taika grins without pretense. There's a crick in her neck forming already, but she nudges her face closer toward his.

“Good," she says. "Because we're going to need to air out the whole truck…."

Rikhard chuckles for the both of them, maybe, then breathes heavier for it.

“I really hope this doesn't come out the wrong way, for right here, like this…"

He strokes stray hair off her face, knuckles brushing slow over her clip. Then he dips back to her neck, buries his lips back in her trim fluff.

Quietly even for how he's muffled himself, just loud enough for her:

“I love you, Taika."

He drips from her already, and that sensation, Taika is acutely aware of—but it doesn't feel as important anymore.

She closes her eyes, paws relaxing even as her pads stick somewhat to the sweaty vinyl. But she's not blushing anymore.

She's warm here. She smiles.

“I love you too, Rikhard."

Morning light's been at it a while by this hour, soon breaking into noontime. Taika stands on the lawn before her childhood home beside Rikhard on her one side, Hadewych on her other.

It's been a little while again. The snow's long since melted. No bags of trash out in the yard today, though, or in the truck parked behind them.

No more of that. Not anymore.

THE WHOLE PLACE.

STATUS: SOLD.

(for cheap. it's still in bad shape.)

Hadewych's the first to sigh, fists bundled in her pockets, breath not clinging so much anymore in the open air. She looks the house up and down, and with her chin held high, says, “Fuck this place."

Rikhard's coat is tucked over his loosely folded arms, but he's smiling, at least.

“Fuck this place," he says.

Taika's smile is somewhat smaller than his, if not settled beneath a warmer twinkle in her eye. There's one more hair clip nudged beside the first now, a matte white, and there's no strays at all sneaking toward her face anymore.

She says, “Agreed."

Another great big sigh from someone or another, either or, and Rikhard looks to Hadewych. He says, “Not sticking around either, right?"

Hadewych grunts.

“Fuck no. Gettin' the hell out of here. Sick of bumpkin town. Mama needs to try the city once in her life, too, find somebody for her again…."

More cautiously, she says, “And I can try to find a girl next time."

Rikhard's brow only nudges upward. “Less drama, you think?"

Hadewych smirks—she pulls a hand up to the back of his head, scuffles his hair fast and messy.

“More of that to play with, I'm hoping."

Rikhard brushes a hand back over his hair as Hadewych retreats from it, her own loose locks shifting over her shoulders in the motion.

“You two dummies ever gonna come visit around here again, do the old-time's-sake thing?" she asks, stuffing her gloveless fingers back in her pocket.

Rikhard shrugs, though he says, “Probably not."

Hadewych grunts. “Good."

Taika looks over to Hadewych next and says, “Let us know where you find your new place. We'll need to call somewhere new to settle down, too, eventually."

Hadewych rolls her eyes. “Whatever."

She turns back to her car parked beside the truck, and calls back while she strolls, “Tell your mom to choke on her own shit for me next time you dummies go see her."

With just a glance back over as she slides into the driver's seat and reaches for the door handle—“See you."

Door slams, smaller engine hums, and slowly, those wheels crunch back over the gravel off onto the road, away.

For the few seconds they watch Hadewych go, Rikhard next looks back down to Taika.

“Still three weeks until our next tournament. That's a lot of time for exploring new places."

Taika eyes him back with closer a smirk than a smile.

“Someplace warm."

Rikhard tilts his head forward again and pulls a face, cheeks puffing before he exhales. “That'll be a long drive."

Taika's lips turn even slicker.

“I like that."

Rikhard glances back to her. Taika narrows her gaze. He smiles again.

He bows an inch and raises one hand flat toward the truck, beckoning, and follows Taika's lead over to the passenger side. He gets her door, she loads in, and he closes it back gently before strolling around to his side.

Taika's grown fond of the noise as this older engine growls awake again, ready to roll. Ready for more.

Rikhard pulls into reverse, back into drive, and they're off, too.

It's early, still, but as they rattle down the road, Taika's head drifts naturally toward the window. Just resting. It's sunny out, but not so much she can't close her eyes despite the jostling—she'll wake up when they get somewhere.

She doesn't have trouble sleeping anymore.

The End.